Brad's Tropical Paradise

If you made the mistake of planting plants right up against the base of your house, you have two problems. The worst of which is for your house, as the plants and the moisture are very bad for the foundation and walls, and another is that you have no access to the back side of your plants. I did everything wrong when I bought my house, and planted right up against the the walls. Then I found that it was just about impossible to get in to prune and weed. So little by little, I've been moving the plants away from the walls. And that's a good start, but you also need to provide yourself, the gardener, with access that won't require you to walk in mud. And that means some stepping stones. So the first step is to find some stepping stones. I hate artificial stuff in the garden, so I use big fairly-flat rocks. I dig them down so that they don't wobble, and I check to see that water flows off of them (I don't want to walk on slippery rocks!). The next step is to f...

If you made the mistake of planting plants right up against the base of your house, you have two problems. The worst of which is for your house, as the plants and the moisture are very bad for the foundation and walls, and another is that you have no access to the back side of your plants. I did everything wrong when I bought my house, and planted right up against the the walls. Then I found that it was just about impossible to get in to prune and weed. So little by little, I've been moving the plants away from the walls. And that's a good start, but you also need to provide yourself, the gardener, with access that won't require you to walk in mud. And that means some stepping stones. So the first step is to find some stepping stones. I hate artificial stuff in the garden, so I use big fairly-flat rocks. I dig them down so that they don't wobble, and I check to see that water flows off of them (I don't want to walk on slippery rocks!). The next step is to f...

If you have a cycad that is suddenly producing a strange growth, that looks like a cone, don't panic. It's perfectly normal. Cycads are a group of plants that create cones as part of their reproductive cycle, like pine trees. Yes, I know that they look like palm trees, but they're not. So, in spite of common names like "sago palm" or "virgin palm", they're not palms. So you can relax. Seeing a cycad coning is actually kind of cool. It means that it's a mature plant that is finally ready to begin the process of reproduction. And, unlike most plants, cycads have two genders. That is, a plant is either a male, or a female. And, like people, they need to be a certain age before they are mature enough to become parents. And, like people, they need to be close to a cycad of the opposite gender that is also at the right time for it to reproduce. And if you think about it, it's not a very efficient way for a plant to reproduce, which is why mo...

If you have a cardboard palm, like the one in the photo at the top of this post, I'm gonna suggest that you start calling it a Zamia. No, it isn't because I'm some big smarty-pants, who wants to go around correcting people all of the time! It's just that a cardboard palm will introduce you to some wonderful and fascinating plants - Zamias, which aren't palms at all. And knowing that will also help you to care for this plant. OK, let's talk a little Latin here. This plant is a Zamia, which is is a genus of cycad of the family Zamiaceae. And if you speak a little Latin, you are not only being more precise about exactly what plant this is, it will allow you to Google the best information about caring for it. And if you're protesting that you can't speak Latin, may I remind you that you said "Triceratops" when you were a kid (at least I did!)? Zamia floridans (coontie). Once you've introduced yourself to Zamias, then you'll fi...

Cycads are strange plants. They're beautiful, and look like small palm trees, or large ferns. They grow very slowly, and can be very expensive, even common ones like "sago palms". But sago palms, in spite of their common name, aren't palms at all. They belong to a group of plants called cycads. They are wonderfully weird, and grow in strange ways. And sometimes they lose all of their leaves. Of course, if it were a palm tree that lost all of its leaves, you would know that the plant was dead. But it's not true of cycads. So don't dig that cycad up and throw it away! Not yet. If you've recently transplanted a cycad, and the leaves have all faded away, hang on. Take a look at the top center of the plant, at what I call "the pucker". There you will see some stubby, soft fronds, no more than an half-inch or so. At least that's what you should see. That means that the plant is still alive, and has dropped its leaves to focus on building r...

One of the tricks that I've used for years here in my garden in Glendale, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) is a misting system. It's an ordinary misting system, like the kind you see on patios spraying water to cool off people, except that mine isn't overhead, it's underground. And it really does make a difference to the plants, especially newly-planted ones, in the summer. The problem that I discovered when I first tried it was that the misting heads would get clogged. After all, they were on the ground. And you could see the water line, which was ugly. So I discovered risers. That's what the picture at the top of this post is. I started with inexpensive plastic risers, and then I started investing in the copper ones. And they are expensive! I can sometimes find them at my local Home Depot, but mostly I've had to order them online. They're copper, so they start out very shiny and visible, but they dull down nicely after exposure to the air and water. ...

One of the most important things you can do as a homeowner is to be sure that the water is draining, and being retained, correctly on your lot. When your house was built, the lot was sloped to allow rainwater to drain away (so that your house doesn't get flooded!) and also to retain the water (which keeps the neighborhood streets from being flooded). Unfortunately, over time, with modifications to properties, many times the drainage has been impaired. It doesn't rain a lot here in the Phoenix area, but when it does, it can come down very hard and fast. So when I first bought this house, over twenty years ago, I made a point to go and take a look to see if the property was draining properly. I would grab an umbrella and just walk around the property. The way it works is this: my backyard retains a large amount of water, and when that area is filled, it begins to flow along the side of my yard, and another sizable amount of water is retained in my courtyard. When that's ...

If you're staring out at a backyard of gravel, or as I prefer to call it, "kitty litter" in Phoenix, Arizona, and would prefer to see plants, I encourage you. In spite of people who claim otherwise, you don't have to be condemned to staring at rocks and the occasional cactus. But if you're thinking about buying plants, you won't like what I have to say: stop. Stop. The first thing that you will need will be a watering system. If you're planning on murdering plants by putting them out there with the promise that you will lug a heavy hose over there, you have made a mistake. If you're fortunate enough to have a watering system in place, you're in luck. If not, then take a deep breath and install something. The system I have here is very inexpensive, just a black plastic tube (5/8"), hooked up to the hose bib with a drip watering system. You can buy the whole set at Home Depot. The tubing is only buried an inch or so below the soil. The ne...

It gets hot in Phoenix in the summertime. And it's a terrible thing for plants because it's most often low humidity and hot. People may appreciate the comfort of a "dry heat", but it's terrible for plants. Now, I'm not talking about during our thunderstorm season, which the plants appreciate. I'm talking about days that are 100 degrees with low humidity. That's very bad for plants, but luckily there is a solution - give them water. I'm not talking about dragging a hose out a couple of times a week. That's bad for your plants and it's pretty darned uncomfortable for you, the human being. If you've made the mistake of trying to keep plants alive in the summer by using the hose you will not only be wasting water, but you will be stressing your plants terribly and probably killing them. The solution is an automated watering system. Here at the Tropical Paradise, I use a low-pressure drip system. It's simply plastic tubing with ...